Cheim & Read

The daily practice of making marks—rhythmically, methodically, filling the page without considering meaning beyond the act itself—is a hallmark of studio practice. For some, the inscribed habit of drawing functions as a warm-up exercise; for others, its simplicity not only formalizes the idea of beginning again each day but strikes at the heart of an artist’s concerns. In her recent exhibition of sculptures and multiple series of abstract drawings titled “The Reticent Child,” Louise Bourgeois addressed both concerns with stunning results.

It is noteworthy that Bourgeois has hardly left her New York City townhouse for a decade, a circumstance that compares on some small scale with what was known during the Nazi rule of Germany as “the inner migration,” a reference to those “degenerate” artists who continued to make art in secret in their homes in spite of the proscription against it.